Monday, July 7, 2014

Motown Mission

Today was the first day of Motown Mission. This is the work mission for the youth group of my new church. Since it involved beautifying Detroit I asked to be included. I'm not going to spend the entire week living at the big Metropolitan United Methodist Church, but I will drive down to that area most days to help on the current project. And sleep in my own bed.

Today's project was the community garden a few blocks from the church. I spent the day weaving twine between poles to hold up tomato plants and weeding around tomatoes and cabbages. It reminded me why this kind of stuff tends to not get done around my house. Others in the team did weeding, hammering in poles for a fence, planting peppers, and preparing another area for planting. That last bit involved turning over the soil and removing the bricks. Various other people (I doubt from Motown Mission) showed up to help. The garden is about an acre, which means it had been several lots with houses. Many of the other houses in the area are blighted.

Some groups take a rest or water break. This group takes a dance break. I was told I was allowed to sit out only one day.

There was a rainstorm as I was getting ready and while driving to the site. It ended a bit before I got there. The damp soil made the weeds a bit easier to pull. There was a period of light rain in the afternoon. Thankfully the thunderstorm passed to the south of us. There were periods of sun with the high about 80F. The forecast for tomorrow is more scattered storms and the same top temperature.

After I got home I got a call from the helpdesk of the company whose graphics card I bought for the new computer. This is the card that prevents one of my monitors from working while connected to the standard video link. The person was helpful, explaining I needed a $5 connector to plug the monitor into the other spot on the card. He even gave me his direct phone number so I could call him if I had continued problems. Yay! A helpdesk that helped!